Saturday, March 1, 2008

Homemade Sausages

When I saw these on Isa's blog, I knew I had to make them. Sure, they looked great for pizza and gumbo and the like, but would they stand up to the bun test? Would they be good on their own, slightly grilled, and served with ketchup and mustard? The answer is yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! These are easy to make and taste way better than anything I can get at the store (Yves). The texture is freakishly sausage-like, and I was able to grill them on the BBQ after the steaming. This makes me think there is nothing these sausages can't do. I went crazy with the spicing: fennel, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley (and no red pepper flakes). Feel free to throw in whatever you want. Here is the recipe from Isa's blog. I made 6 sausages instead of 4.

METHOD1. Before mixing your ingredients, get your steaming apparatus ready, bring water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.2. Have ready 6 sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the pinto beans until no whole ones are left. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 6 even parts. Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is awesome.3. Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes.

And now for dessert. I could not resist these blueberries and raspberries on sale at the grocery store today. They are from Chile, so, yikes, but they really helped to beat the winter blues (which we all have a really bad case of). I suppose I'll regret this some day when I am dying from some cancerous growth. Anyway, Vegan Mom made the sweet scones, sliced them in half, laded them with berries, and served with soymilk poured over top.